Republicans Finding It's Lonely In The City

Republicans Find City Pretty Lonely

November 03, 1991|By DAVE DRURY; Courant Staff Writer

The fortunes of city Republicans had reached an all-time low. With voter registration continuing to slide, the party machinery had broken down, leaving the town committee unable to field a slate of candidates.

As election day approached, Democrats controlled eight of the nine city council seats and the lone Republican, a political maverick, faced an uphill battle to retain the seat.

Sound familiar?

Such was the situation in 1963, a year when political necessity led to the birth of the New Republican Party, which for a time revitalized the role of the GOP in Hartford politics.

By the end of the 1960s, the Republican Party had become a credible opposition, holding as many as four seats on the city council and electing the state's first female mayor, Antonina P. "Ann" Uccello, who served from 1967 to 1971.

No one -- not even the most die-hard local Republican -- expects history to repeat itself. Not this year, nor any time soon.

"It's like the Confederacy -- the Lost Cause," said Town Chairman John B. O'Connell, in assessing the party's outlook. Of the city's 47,983 registered voters, only 4,650 -- fewer than 10 percent -- are Republicans. Outnumbered by Democrats and unaffiliated voters in every one of the 23 voting districts, the party faces the loss of its sole remaining seat on the council to the People For Change slate, the liberal third party that emerged four years ago from the Democratic establishment.

Roger B. Ladd, the veteran Republican who has retained that seat by never drifting too far from the Democratic majority, and Frederick Carlson are the only Republicans running this year. A third candidate, Carlos Lopez, dropped out in October, saying, "Who wants to run and lose?"

Interviewed at his council office, Ladd would not admit defeat. He even suggested that he and Carlson may benefit from the deep rift that opened within the Democratic Party in the primary. "I may surprise [people]. Fred Carlson may surprise some people," he said. "The word is getting around the people of Hartford want a watchdog on the council."

According to Ladd, the victory of Mayor Carrie Saxon Perry's hand-picked slate over the endorsed Democratic incumbents in September presented a heaven-sent opportunity for local Republicans. The chance was wasted because the town committee failed to put forward an entire slate of council candidates.

"A lot of people who supported the losers now have no place to go. I think the lesson the party should have is always put your best foot forward, go down with your flags flying," Ladd said.

Whether from defeatism, the loss of its natural constituency to the suburbs or a lack of leadership, Hartford Republicans have watched their influence erode to the point of irrelevancy -- a disturbing trend, said Clyde D. McKee Jr., professor of political science at Trinity College.

McKee, a registered Democrat, is critical of what he sees as the growing number of "no contest" elections across the country. "I am an advocate of responsible party government. We as voters are not being well served by the decline of political parties at all levels," he said. "I think it's terrible we don't have more candidates expressing different visions, different tax policies within the city."

To restore competition between political parties, McKee advocates amending state election law to allow the voter who works in a city but lives in a suburb the option of where to vote, thereby in effect broadening the franchise.

Others say only new and vigorous leadership can make the GOP -- which last held the edge in voter registrations in the city in 1930 -- again a viable opposition. "They need someone to inspire and challenge them on. There isn't the dedication, commitment today," said Uccello, who makes her home now in West Hartford. She was elected mayor twice despite nearly a 4-to-1 edge in Democratic voter registrations.

State Republican Chairman Richard Foley said he believed city Republicans should start small, for example putting up one or two candidates for the Hartford state representative and Senate seats next year.

"It didn't become that way overnight. At that point, you're not going to solve a 20-year problem in a year," he said.

Former Republican Chairman Joseph S. Trigila, who resigned in 1990, criticized the current town committee leadership for failing to recruit blacks and Hispanics into the party. Part of that failure he attributes to revised local party rules that left minority neighborhoods without an effective voice on the committee. "I think the Republicans miss a golden opportunity to sway minorities, both Hispanic and black, to the party. Instead they ostracize them," he said.

Blacks and Hispanics comprise about 20 percent to 25 percent of the party's registered voters, said Eugene Cimiano, Republican registrar of voters. Overall, party registrations are highest in the South and West ends, particularly among older voters. Even in their heaviest concentrations, however, Republicans usually find themselves in a small minority.